Mar 31, 2022

Removing Roadblocks for Care Teams

Today care teams are challenged with increasing workloads due to workforce fluctuations and government regulation changes to name a few, all of which drive up client enquiries resulting in teams rarely being able to focus on tasks beyond the next 24 to 48 hours. In this reactionary environment that care providers operate, the need for "glue" and cohesion between teams, families and clients is now more important than ever as its communication that plays a vital role in unlocking "time" and "capacity" quickly.

Increasing Workloads have real Impacts

Care teams across roles of customer service, scheduling, case management/ care management have always been busy. Across providers, the constant fielding of enquires from clients and families, combined with day-to-day changes in visits due to unplanned leave client changes or cancellations, people running late, is inevitable and part of the day course. With each enquiry resulting in teams needing to consult each other and reach out to field teams and clients/families, effort quickly builds limiting the ability to get through the work.

In a review of Hayylo population data from Australian home care providers who collectively support over 50,000 clients across communities nationally, it was noted that over 60% of effort relates to simple repetitive effort around several common themes.

Theme Why? Informing clients and families around upcoming visits Clients and families need to constantly be informed of when services are planned to be delivered. This helps them plan the days ahead and ensure informal supports are there to fill in the gaps. Teams have to reach clients and families frequently Whenever visits change - because of client requests, workforce unplanned leave or other reasons - providers have a duty of care to inform impacted clients of these changes in a timely manner. The nature of schedule relies on knowing client preferences, workforce preferences / ability and negotiating with clients to make changes work. Families need to keep informed about their loved ones Even more so now, and especially across residential care, family members have ongoing questions around their loved ones. As these questions arise, they consume time from admin teams fielding these enquiries and responding in a timeline manner.

In a "contact-heavy" work environment that care teams work within, all the above takes tremendous time and effort. Looking at this economically, efforts add up quickly - reducing time available to spend thinking innovatively about client needs.

Efforts of coordination and communication are mounting up

How are leaders looking at this opportunity differently to gain quick wins and equip their teams for success?

A different approach to communication opens time quickly

Today, the outlook is vastly different in terms of real possibilities. Technology adoption, client ability and acceptance of technology coupled with a new lens that technology vendors are taking to partnerships has created and delivered answers to these topics.

Automated Simple Communication - the key to unburdening teams to lift the common repetitive communication they undertake and automate it in an acceptable way. Enabling clients to "see" their visits across apps, SMS and other communication methods is key. In addition, automatically notifying clients and families when visits change - only at the right times - is a valuable tool numerous providers are using today to free up time.

Simple and Fast Delivery in Weeks - many leaders will be accustomed to technology projects taking a significant number of months (sometimes over 12) to deliver projects. Technology and methods have rapidly changed over the past 5 years resulting in setups now taking weeks to complete and return value quickly.

Client Acceptance of Technology - Clients and families are now, more than ever, familiar and accepting of technology-based solutions informing them versus people and phone calls. With over 70% - 80% of clients/ family contacts being familiar with telephone, SMS and/ or app based technology, the opportunity to open vast amounts of time for teams is real and now.

Realising Gains Quickly

Across the sector teams are rapidly looking at traditional problems with a new lens. As teams and clients change - showcased by several Hayylo customers across home care now predominantly updating their client/ family groups via automated communications methods only - teams are less stressed, can prioritise work effectively and quickly as well as focus on providing real value. By lifting away repetitive work from teams, it empowers them to work differently, thinking differently and provide new levels of support to the clien'ts teams and frontline staff. With the ability to deliver value through projects like this in weeks, the time to enable teams is now.